WHEN IT came to getting Mauritanian immigrant Moctar Teyeb's name, I nailed it right on the button, spelling and all. Ditto for local activists Anditu Siwatu and Nnamdi Lumumba of the National Democratic Uhuru Movement.

But when it comes to an easy and simple name like Walter Holtz, what do I do? I blow it completely. Well, I blew half of it anyway. In Sunday's column Walter Holtz, a 14-year veteran of the Baltimore City Police Department who retired in 1971, came out as Ken Holtz. How did this happen? Let's just say those of you who might have concluded I have the IQ of mud have just been proved right.

I apologize to readers for the error, and to Holtz.

To his credit, the ex-officer took the gaffe with good humor.

"I thought you were making a joke," good ol' Walt told me in a voice mail message. We journalist types do have a sense of humor, but we don't make jokes by changing the names of story subjects. It has to do with that credibility thing. Refer to Janet Cooke of the Washington Post and her fictionalizing a Pulitzer Prize-winning story quite a few years back, and you'll see why we have no humor about such matters.

Now if I could only figure out this thing I have about names. Maybe I have a subconscious disdain about them that probably started when I learned Gregory meant "lover of horses."

Low blows are part of boxing

Could the media please, please, please get off the subject of World Boxing Council champion Lennox Lewis being "robbed" last Saturday night in his fight with World Boxing Association and International Boxing Federation champ Evander Holyfield?

It's not the greatest injustice in boxing history, in spite of what the media tell us.

Remember 1947, sports media types, when Jersey Joe Walcott decked heavyweight champion Joe Louis twice and boxed his ears off for 15 rounds? Louis won on a split decision. It took Walcott -- a persistent cuss if ever there was one -- another three tries before he won the championship. At least Lewis still has a championship to claim.

Remember 1968, when Floyd Patterson, who had already won the heavyweight title twice, boxed WBA champ Jimmy Ellis? Patterson smacked his opponent around, broke his nose and lost the fight when a referee desperately in need of cataract surgery awarded the fight to Ellis.

Muhammad Ali is given credit for being the first to win the heavyweight title three times, but that honor should have gone to Patterson.

The most flagrant decision of all came in 1964 when middleweight contender Rubin "Hurricane" Carter gave champ Joey Giardello a worse thrashing than Lewis gave Holyfield Saturday night. The three blind mice who scored the fight gave the decision to Giardello.

But unlike Walcott and Patterson, who at least had known a champion's glory, Carter -- one of the top middleweights of his era -- never became champ. He never got another title shot. He was due one in 1966 but was arrested for multiple murders in Paterson, N.J.

Two witnesses identified Carter and a companion as the two black men who committed the crime, although neither fit the description of the suspects. The witnesses -- two questionable characters from Paterson's criminal underbelly -- later recanted their testimony. Then they recanted their recantation. Carter maintained his innocence throughout his 19 years in prison.

"If they thought for one second you were the actual killers," one of Carter's lawyers told him at one point, "they'd have fried your black asses to bacon rinds -- and rightly so." That quote comes from "The 16th Round," Carter's autobiography of his life as a youth offender and adult street thug who had seemingly found redemption through professional boxing before his murder arrest.

Even if you're skeptical about autobiographies (and you should be; they're heavy on the auto and light on the bio), Carter's book is still a fascinating read. Hurricane was no mere pug. The book is full of quotes like the one above. One of the most notable is from Carter himself. In describing a prison riot started by some nitwits high on homemade wine, Carter noted that under most circumstances the inmates "wouldn't have followed these guys to the mess hall, even on the days they had chicken."

Carter's account of that riot is both serious and, at the same time, one of the funniest things you will ever read in your life. Media types should stop whining about the robbery of the mediocre Lennox Lewis and pick up a book about the best middleweight champion that never was.

Pub Date: 3/17/99